Pakistan: Soldiers Killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed
Several officers and soldiers have been killed and injured in attacks by armed men on a police station and an army outpost in northwest Pakistan, police said.
The assaults came on Friday morning, extending a growing campaign of violence in former Taliban strongholds along the border with Afghanistan. Three days earlier, a suicide bomber killed 23 Pakistani soldiers in the same province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Friday’s attack on the police occurred in the Tank district of the province’s Dera Ismail Khan division. Police said two officers were killed and three others wounded.
Two were killed by police while the third blew himself up, he reported. An unexploded suicide jacket has also been found and police launched an operation to secure the compound.
“Our force on guard engaged them in a gun battle for hours,” and police officers were wounded, police official Iftikhar Shah told Reuters news agency.
Shah said all remaining officers at the post were evacuated safely and a search operation was under way after alerts of more armed men present in the area.
An armed group that identified itself as Ansar-ul-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released to a Reuters reporter. However, Dawn reported that a group called Ansarul Jihad claimed the attack.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed a rise in violence this year, with several deadly attacks taking place. In January, at least 101 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a mosque in the capital, Peshawar.
